Norwegian Wood

2011 - Anh Hung Tran
Shot in HD, the contrast is really quite low; combined with not much depth, we have a lack of any kind of colour saturation. The HD makes the skin tones come to life, we have great detail there, but there is nothing hyperreal about the colours, which would perhaps have suited the film's system better. Indeed, at times it can look almost washed out, and especially when the film, as it is for periods, is enabled by the HD to get pretty dark.
Despite this, different scenes often have cooridnated colour schemes, radically different from the previous and next. Hung Tran seems to enjoy cutting between these for maximum discombobulation. Indeed, his editing, and general direction, seems to be fighting against the flat tone of the scenario by introducing figures leering over each other, and some editing that seems almost as a jump by its use of agressively new compostions (saying this, there are a few graphic matches).
The floating, moving camera, that can't stay still but steadily comes in or out, quite close, can be used in a number of ways (i.e., Hitchcock for dramatic irony). Here it is used in a lasivious manner, almost prurient (in a good way) to let us have a look at all the dirt, all the details (again, going against the scenario). Tracking slowly up the hosepipe, for example, seems to be a dirty little act, rather than any kind of embrace or stroking (a la Claire Denis' use of similar movements).
The film can play out in long shots, half plan-sequences, with the camera moving around to reframe and take on this smooth but un-tight life of its own. It closes in as the film progresses.
This film can be flat as it attempts to squeeze the novel out, scenes that simply don't work as not enough time is (or could be) spent on characterisation. Hung Tran seems to sense this, his SRS flicking around almost contemptuously, asking these people, who haven't been invested with the full depth of their words, to pull themselves together. The depth of the characterisation of the novel would require a seven hour film; the squeezing it in here leads to inadequate material, and a jumpy narrative. Hung Tran can only toy with us.
And yet he directs as well as he can, allowed to pick things up from this flat tone with the addition of jarring carnal dialogue, and with the above-mentioned cutting and certain compositonal decisions. Indeed, the composition throughout is excellent, using a very wide screen to let us nicely into a landscape. This film had real problems on its own, but led me to look forward to seeing more of Hung Tran's work.